DCDR receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2025
We are honoured to announce that the Downpatrick and County Down Railway has been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2025 – the MBE for volunteer organisations and highest honour for volunteer groups in the UK. You may notice some familiar faces in the video below… In our 40th anniversary year, this award recognises […]
A switch in time
We got a bit of a helping hiab this week. A huge thank you to our friends at RIVVAL in Carrickmacross, just across the border in County Monaghan, who donated this pair of brand-new, never-used switches (part of the points that switch a train from one railway track to another). They had been set up […]
Maghera Shed Roof Replacement – Expression of Interest
The Downpatrick and County Down Railway Society seeks Expressions of Interest from suitable contractors for the replacement roof on our Maghera Engine Shed. To request the relevant project specification and tendering documentation please email: j.noble@downrail.co.uk. Closing date for Expressions of Interest is 5pm on Friday 21st November 2025. Registered office: The Railway Station, Market Street, […]
Sweeps, digs and sparks
Our volunteers were hard at work on Saturday with on less glamorous side of running a railway – preparing for our next public trains at Halloween. This involved sweeping up leaves, digging a grave and fixing electrical sockets. A special train using loco 124 was taken to Inch to transport our work gang, who spent […]
DCDR attend South Dublin Model Railway Club 50th Anniversary Exhibition
We had a wonderful time at the South Dublin Model Railway Club’s 50th Anniversary exhibition in Blackrock College, Dublin, over the past three days – it was a great opportunity to meet many of our supporters from the Dublin area. Thank you to everyone who supported our stall and for all the chats. There was […]
80 Class restoration update: headlamp repairs
So you thought all the rust had been banished from 80 Class 69? Think again. Recently, we took a look at what will hopefully be the last remaining horror story on this 80 class power car: the headlamp housing. It’s probably fair to say this hasn’t seen the light of day since it was assembled […]
The pane of replacing a window
We’ve finally sorted a right pane for our visitors. If you’ve been on one of our sold-out trains, you might have noticed one niggle with the experience: a certain window in our 450 railcar through which you could see… absolutely nothing. That’s because these railcars use a double-glazed window system, and the seal between the […]
Signalling project update: October 2025
Our signal cabin volunteers continue to work away on Bundoran Junction signal cabin as we get prepared to link it up to the points and signals around our yard. Robin and Jim have spent the last several weeks fitting plates to the bottom of the lever frame. These will eventually be attached to rods and […]
Work on returning No.90 to steam recommences
On Saturday 11th October, for the first time since the devastating flooding of November 2023, our volunteers began work on bringing steam back to County Down. As part of the previous week’s massive shunt, we moved 150-year-old tank engine No. 90 from the damaged Maghera Shed over to the Workshop so we can restart work […]
Rails return to Saintfield
After many years of rumours and false starts, rails have finally returned to Saintfield, seventy years after they were lifted by the old Ulster Transport Authority. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we were delighted to assist Saintfield Community Association with their development of Windmill Park Saintfield, located just behind Saintfield Leisure Centre. The […]